Big Shiny Bento

I still laugh at the South Park episode where Cartman ‘bulks’ up. However the only beef in today’s lunch comes from a roast!

Last night was roast beef night, so naturally lunch today is beef themed.

The bottom has beef, pea, and onion rice with slices of roast beef and gravy on top.

The top layer has skewers with pickled baby onions, and homemade pickled carrots dyed red. There are also some small radishes cut decoratively. Pickles and radish are good compliments for beef (think horseradish!).

Sorry about no picture today. I’m not going to take crappy pics with my laptop anymore - they never turn out well enough to enjoy. Hopefully my descriptions are enough for you. In case you still want more, here is a picture of me that has been Simpsonized!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! And in case this is the last post of the year - have a Happy New Year too!

I just got my order from Amazon.ca - only took 2 days to get here! They are a book on dim sum (ISBN 978-4-88996-226-D), and one on Japanese pickles (ISBN 488996181X). These books have easy to follow recipes, and great color pictures of the foods!
  

I now have a bento book, a hana sushi (flower or fancy suishi) book, and these two. I’ll have to go through and find which ingredients I can find locally here and then get to work experimenting!

I likely won’t be posting regularly over the holidays as I will be out of town. I’ll still try to get a couple posts in at least, more if I get some neat cooking done! Those bento recipes look really tasty!

I hope you all have a good Christmas, and you get everything you deserve .. er .. want!

Yup I finally got around to making sushi, a staple of bento everywhere.

Recently I bought a hana sushi book for making cute animal shaped sushi, so I figured I should get started on the basics and work up.

My lunch was having a potluck so I gave it a shot - basic sushi with cucumber and red pepper, no fish.

I followed the recipe from how to wash and cook the rice to fanning the rice and rolling the sushi. It turned out very well, and wasn’t too messy (I’ll be cleaner next time, I promise honey!). The big pieces have 2-3 pieces of sweet red pepper and 1-2 pieces of cucumber. I also added some sesame seeds to them. The smaller ones have 1 piece of each in the middle, and the smallest just has cucumber. The only thing I did that was a bit different was dry the cucumber after cutting it for easier handling. The piece on its side in the front is the end of the roll with the pepper sticking out - many restaurants do this for decoration, but normally that would just be cut off to get a squared end like the rest.

FYI - 1 cup of uncooked rice turned into about 2.5 cups of cooked rice, which was enough rice for 3 different rolls from large to small - or about 22-24 pieces. Since it was an office event I didn’t add any wasabi.

In the foreground you can see my cucumber peel Christmas tree. To peel a cucumber in one piece, cut the ends off and then using a sharp knife cut just inside the peel, and roll the knife and cucumber to keep the knife cutting parallel to the peel. If you do it right the whole peel will come off in one piece, and you can do lots of fun stuff with it. I cut it into the shape of a tree and added little pieces of pepper and rice as colored balls and snow.

Anyway it was a hit at work, so its all good for another try. I’ll have to use up that pickled red carrot in my fridge soon too…

Well just soup today. With the record snowfall we got last night I didn’t make a lunch today.

But I do have some instant soup I will be having for lunch. I found some really good miso soup mix. That is the soup you get when you go to a Japanese restaurant for teppan stir fry or other meal.

Shiro Miso (or white miso) is the common type of soup. It has white bean paste to give it the white look, seaweed, tofu bits, green onion, and not much else.

Kikkoman makes a 3 pack of these instant soups. Each pack makes 2/3 cup of soup, just right for a bowl before a meal or a little something to warm you up on a cold day. There is also Wakame or seaweed soup. You’ll be surprised how much the little bits from that package can expand in water!
They are a little pricey at something like $1.25 per individual pack, but for that full Japanese meal experience it is one of the things that makes a difference. You should be able to get them at an Loblaws that has fresh made sushi.

I didn’t get my Bento box washed out, so today is noodle bowl day! Plus i had to use the laptop camera again. The result was so bad that I used PhotoShop to make it look like it was painted. I think it actually made it look better.

The noodles are from an instant soup. I’ve been trying some better instant soups lately and this one seems good - Nong Shim brand Neoguri. The noodles are plump and the seasoning packet had seaweed, mushrooms, and more!

The big green things are baby bok choy! I sliced them lengthwise this time for something different. And to go with…

Omelette!. Brown diced green onions in a greased pan. Then mix 2 eggs, a dash of soy sauce, and a big pinch of sugar. Pour the mix into the pan, keep it as thin as you can. When its almost cooked through, start to fold it over. If you didn’t use all your egg mixture, shuffle the rolled/folded cooked eggs to one side leaving a bit of a tail sticking out towards the middle of the pan. Pour out the rest of the egg mixture next to the ‘tail’. When its cooked, continue folding it over. Let it sit for a minute to finish cooking and take its shape. Then move it to a plate, let it cool a bit, and slice it into strips. It should look a bit like a jelly roll as you can see the layers in it. This is called Tamagoyaki, and is one topping for sushi.

Have a good weekend!

I went out for lunch with my wife yesterday so… recipe day!

Ever go to a Chinese restaurant and wonder what is in ‘Chinese greens’ ? It varies based on the time of year, and the restaurant , but generally it is BOK CHOY!

<-- Some raw baby bok choy.

Different types of bok choy - Basic bok choy is the size of a bunch of celery, with white stalks and dark green leaves. The stems are very crisp and the leaves look like spinach. All bok choy tastes like a mild spinach. My favorite types are baby and shanghai bok choy. They are roughly 6 inches tall, and are normally all green including the stems. The size is easier for portion control
Selecting fresh - Check that the stems are firm - not limp or rubbery. Most importantly the leaves should be dark green and free from any spots or discoloration.

Preparation - Its easy! Separate the stems from the stalk (unless you are cooking the stem whole), wash the dirt off, and cut off the woody bottom. Now you can: leave them whole, julienne, or simply dice them. Cooking baby bok choy whole gives a nice look. I like to cut them small so its easier to eat.
Cooking - Bok choy cooks quickly, being mostly water. Start boiling water in a pot - it doesn’t take much. If I’m cooking the basic bok choy, I cut the white stems off and into small pieces for faster cooking. For baby bok choy there is much less cutting, none if you like them whole!

Put the stems into the boiling water first for a couple minutes. Then add the leaves as they don’t need much cooking. If you want to, add some soy sauce and garlic to the water while cooking for flavor and to get ready for the sauce.

The sauce - I cook bok choy in a little water, add the soy and garlic, and then boil the water down. If you add some corn starch, the water turns into a really nice sauce in no time. Like with gravy - watch out for lumps!

I hope this gives you something new to try. Let me know what you think!

Here is today’s selection. I found the camera so we’re back to good quality photos again.

The bottom is broccoli and General Tao’s chicken. As you can tell I really like the chicken. I debated filling a whole layer with it!

The top is baby bok choy with one piece of broccoli, some fried rice, and a BBQ pork bun. I have to remember not to put the buns in the top layer as they don’t fit well. I lined the box layers with waxed paper so I could easily lift it all out and heat it up if I wanted to - its much tastier served hot.
As you can likely tell by this point this is day #2 of leftovers and Yum Yum! There might be more tomorrow still
The surprise above lunch is my Japanese smart candy! When I ordered the bento box, I got a couple packages of this candy because it sounded neat. The box is really funny with all the action comic poses and so on. The candys are like little hard grape gummy bells coated in sour powder. They are kinda nice to munch on in the afternoon, so I’m onto my 2nd box already. If you are interested, contact me and I can give you the info to order them.

I promised a bento today, and here it is! Sorry for the bad picture - had to use my laptop camera.

The bottom is chicken fried rice with baby bok choi (pak choi I think) and beef on top.

The top is General Tao chicken on the right, and broccoli with ginger pork on the left.

At the bottom is the chopstick case that came with my bento box. Neat eh?

Before you start ohhing and ahhing at my meal - its all leftovers from New Hong Shing, our favorite Chinese restaurant in Ottawa! We always buy too much so we will have leftovers for a lunch or two.

First let me apologize for my non-posting lately. A bout of sickness at home, followed by catching up at work has swamped me.

This is about to change… if I can find my camera. I will be posting my lunch today, but it might be photo-less.

stay tuned!

[edit: I changed the title of this article - it was a bit misleading since we are not offering any prizes for reading this blog apart from the juicy tidbits offered within the articles themselves. ]